To protect against a E4 or E5 tornado I think you would best be underground*. But tornados this strong appear to be rare in Florida. Yes, most tornadoes in Florida are of the F0 and F1 variety. But on occasion, there have been some deadly tornado outbreaks. The one that stands out was in Central Fl...

OP or anyone else similar...find a paying job where the work is not that difficult, the pay is decent, and not much is expected out of you. Im not really sure any other way to make money besides working and or investing which requires money to begin with. Invest/save aggressively. Find some hobbies...

The water is cold off of California! There are many great things to see about California but the beaches aren't the main attraction. If you want a beach vacation where you can actually enjoy swimming in the ocean, check out Hawaii or Florida.

Aside from the fact, it's a losers bet with odds at 1 in 175 million, The Powerball Jackpot is now $400 million + and the lump sum option after taxes would yield in the neighborhood of $175 million. It's a nice little fantasy. I was thinking how I would invest such a portfolio and whether a boglehea...

It's really not a big deal. If you are planning to do physical activities outside, it's better to be an early bird and do them in the mornings before it gets too hot. Then take your siesta during the midday sun or do your indoor activities during the day in air conditioned comfort. Late afternoons c...

The big news here is ESPN. Something I've heard again and again about folks reluctant to be cord cutters is not having access to their sports. So for those who feel forced into a $100 cable bill because of sports, they can now get ESPN networks and a few others for $20 month. Netflix for $8 and over...

Something people really need to keep in mind with SlingTV is bandwidth caps with their internet service provider. All internet service providers have some sort of cap whether it is a hard cap per month common is 150 GB or a soft "excessive use" cap. Streaming HD content typically uses 2 - 3 GB an ho...

Look on craigslist. There are TONS of temp jobs, many in finance, accounting, especially bookkeeping for small businesses. They don't pay very much but might be what you need to do to add to your experience level. Maybe continue bartending at night and doing some of these resume enhancer type jobs d...

You don't need a degree to do sales. The right type of personality is more important. It's almost heresy to say this on this board but you could get licensed and consider insurance and financial services/advisory. Income potential is huge.

My theory is that FSGDX is a relatively new fund created 9/8/2011 that it has had a very large ramp up in assets over to $748 million from probably $25 million in seed money to start the fund. As more new money has come in, more shares had to be created, and all these new assets over the course of t...

It all depends on how low of a cost of living and your median housing prices. I'd argue that if you have a household income of $95k and you can buy a nice home for $200k that you are in much better shape than living in the Bay Area making $200k in household income where median homes go for $1 millio...

What are the statue of limitations for debt repayment in your state? You are in a much better position if you can tell them under state law, they have no legal basis to collect. Most likely they will write the bill off under such circumstances if they wish to continue your business relationship.

1) yes it is. I love love love california. But I ultimately left. 13%, other laws that impact my quality of life, left me no choice. If it was the most expensive state in the US by 3-5% plus I had other rights I care about, I'll be honest I'd live in California. Other people have said to me " you m...

Some thoughts. 1) Moving to California is stupid from a tax standpoint. Consider a no income tax state such as Florida where you could claim residency. This doesn't mean you have to spend all your time in Florida. You could live in Florida half the year to maintain residency and California the other...

Why do you believe this? Personally I don't. For one retirement maybe a third of my life so forget just sitting there. If I only go on one cruise a year I will be very disappointed. Second, SS isn't going to cover LTC and I have seen Medicaid facilities and not interested in occupying one. Most peo...

Thank you for the link. There are many variables to consider. With ACA, losing retirement health benefits would not be as catastrophic. We'd probably need to manipulate our income lower to maximize subsidies.

Paid for house in a low cost of living area. Limit your retirement activities to internet surfing, watching TV, reading, other low cost or free hobbies.......can easily be done on modest retirement income.

My organization does not have a history of layoffs but they do like to get rid of older, more expensive employees with buyout offers and voluntary early retirement. Some of the perks typically offered include severance of up to one year's salary, an immediate annuity from your pension (1.25% per yea...

I think his spending and saving levels are fine. Most people would love to save 30% of their income. People here often times forget not everyone lives till retirement. Cancer does happen. Accidents do happen. People do die in their prime or become disabled. He loves to travel. Then he should travel ...

GEHA contracts with different networks in each state. Some states use Coventry's First Health, others use United Health Care or Aetna. I was on GEHA in the past with my wife and had a negative experience with an ER visit. The hospital was in-network but the ER doctor was not. GEHA paid out of networ...

Most HSA's are paired with a high deductible health care plan. They work best for the type of person that rarely goes to the doctor and has no maintenance drugs. If you have any chronic conditions or need maintenance prescriptions they aren't such a great deal most of the time. Of course, it's a gam...

Remember there is a surcharge on long term capital gains if they result in your AGI being over $200,000 single and $250,000 married. Also, you could run into alternative minimum tax problems depending on AGI. So depending on your income level that $180k you could liquidate it all and not run into ex...

http://www.news-journalonline.com/article/20141013/news/141019750 Six months after building a large custom house with an ocean view, Missouri residents Mark and Brenda Voss learned of a big problem – it's on the wrong lot. Enlarge | This 5,300-square-foot house along Ocean Ridge Boulevard North in t...

The latest 2015 Hyundai Sonata is a complete redesign. I'd be wary on buying any new car in the first model year while they work out the bugs. For what it's worth, I bought a new 2011 Hyundai Sonata in the first year of the last redesign and while I initially loved the car some worrisome issues have...

We tried. The consensus from people in the know was to stop making payments and appear distressed. The lender has no real incentive otherwise to do anything. I'm sure we could have played chicken with the lender to see if we could negotiate something but that didn't seem worth wrecking our credit fo...

Are you a time traveler who just appeared in 2014 and missed out the past 5 years? Why didn't you consider refinancing over the years with interest rates at less than half of 6.5% ? It would have been a no brainer if our mortgage was covered under HARP. But it had to be owned by Freddie or Fannie. ...

Yeah, but how to you quantify the opportunity costs in 7 years? Let's say I lump sum 190,000 in a balanced 60/40 boglehead portfolio. I've seen many forecasts of expected bond returns in the next ten years of sub 2%. And who knows what equity returns will be in 7 years? But at today's valuations I'd...

The loss in home equity from when you purchased this house is there whether or not you sink $50K into the house. Your argument about being out $50K to refinance vs. but your assumption that this isn't the case if you pay off the mortgage in full makes no sense to me. I like this because of the simp...

So why not pay $50k for the privilege now? Get a 4% loan and then dollar cost average the rest. Yeah but then I'll still have a mortgage, and be out $50k. Doesn't help significantly with cash flow. Also, am I really saving much? Mortage interest amortization would reset and I'd be paying down littl...

House was purchased in 2007 and is underwater. We looked into refi and it wouldn't have been possible without paying $50,000 for the privilege along with all the nuisance appraisal and other fees. Our credit union owned the mortgage and didn't participate in the government refi programs for underwat...

I have lots of cash sitting in money market with no place to go. Initially, we were considering a move to a different location so needed the money safe and liquid. Circumstances have changed and now will remain in current home and area for a minimum of 5-7 years and most likely longer. I'm not comfo...

I think this is completely dependent on where you live and the cost of living involved. If you making that kind of money in most rural areas or small towns in the south or midwest where homes can cost $100k or below and the median household income is $30k, you are doing well for yourself. In a place...

@mathwiz, If I plan to live solely off the interest within 2-3 years already, wouldn't it be wise to have a good portion in bonds? If the market goes down like in 2008 and I'm retired already, it'd be very hard for me to come up with another $3 million... Even though I'm young, I'm still 2 years aw...

You are so very young that I don't think a withdrawl rate greater than 2% makes much sense. If you have $3 million, I'd stay aggressive 80/20 or 90/10 equities and learn to live off of the dividends and interest alone which should yield approximately $60k-$80k a year.

The Fidelity Spartan Global ex-US fund ( FSGDX ) has a yield significantly lower than the comparable fund from Vanguard (VFWAX / VEU). It's 1.47% vs. 3.09%. Is this because the Fidelity fund is new and has been rapidly growing assets from $80 million two years ago to over $400 million now? I'm guess...

I think moving to the private sector would be a mistake in your situation. Why leave a low stress cushy job where you are more likely to drop dead on the job than be fired? This is actually a true statistic. The number of employees who die each year while in a federal government job is greater than ...

I hope you your state protects your homestead and assets in tax sheltered accounts from judgments. Likewise, I hope you have very little assets or money in taxable accounts. It will make the eventual bankruptcy filing when you get that heart attack and $1 million + hospital bill for weeks in hospita...

Depending on your state laws, the assets in your name prior to marriage should remain yours after divorce. Just don't comingle funds then all bets are off. Keep the assets completely separate. Capital gains, dividends, and interest during marriage may be vulnerable in a divorce. Also, don't expect a...